We sell the sphagnum moss we pack into our own wire frames, by the bale. Preserved moss also goes onto panels, which is commercial moss walls. One bale is 46 pounds and 5.5 cubic feet, compressed and wire-banded so it arrives as a solid block rather than a sack of loose material.
What is in a bale
Natural sphagnum, sprayed green, which is where the even colour comes from, and worth knowing before you order if you are matching it to something. It is a working material, not a decorative one: it is sold for packing and repair rather than for display on its own.
It does two jobs. The first is stuffing a new wire frame: the moss is packed in by hand until the shape fills out and the wire holds it. The second is repair: refreshing a mossed piece that has gone thin after a spell outside, which is the more common reason people come back for a second bale.
Which moss does which job
Three kinds turn up in this trade and they are not interchangeable. Buying the wrong one is the most common mistake we see.
- Sphagnum is long and fibrous. It packs tightly around a frame and holds a shape under its own compression, which is why it is the one used for topiary bodies. It is too coarse to read well as a flat decorative surface.
- Reindeer moss is springy and branching, with far more surface texture. It suits flat work: panels, terrariums, anywhere the moss itself is the thing being looked at. It compresses badly, so it is the wrong choice for anything structural.
- Sheet moss comes in flat mats with a backing. It is for covering soil, lining baskets and hiding mechanics, not for building depth.
Only the sphagnum bale is sold in bulk here today. If you need reindeer or sheet moss by volume, ask and we will tell you honestly whether we can supply it.
Ordering by the bale
The bale is priced and ships as a single banded block. How far one goes depends entirely on what you are filling: a dense 16-inch animal and an open 5-foot frame are not comparable, so rather than publish a coverage figure that would be wrong for most buyers, tell us the pieces you are filling and we will tell you what we would order.
If you are working on frames rather than panels, how to add moss to a topiary frame covers the packing method itself.
